We Need the Face of God Today

"Then He (Yahweh) said, "I will make all of My Goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you.  I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.'  Exodus 33:19

This chapter is very special to me.  It adds to the self-revelation of God as seen in the burning bush that was not consumed and his power as revealed in the attack upon and defeat of Egypt's stubborn leader.  That contest was won by God before Pharaoh entered into the arena.

The Exodus event illustrates that redemption is by power.  God's people were led out by the power of God. Moses' experience with God taught him to appreciate the presence of God in his life.  God's presence is precisely what we need.  The Hebrew word for presence is literally 'face.'  We need the face of God in our lives.  In Exodus 33:15 Moses says to God, "If your 'faces' do not go with us, do not bring us up from here."

Yes, in this verse the word face is plural.  You may ask why?  Well, the answer is very powerful and allows us to enter into the heart of Moses himself.  Moses has had God move him along a continuum in his faith journey.  At one time Moses had tried to resist Yahweh's will for his life.  A problem that we do not encounter today because of our spiritual sophistication (note the sarcasm).

God, however, moved Moses along the faith continuum by carefully designed and specific tests that opened his spiritual eyes to see that God was not going to be resisted by him.  "Thy will be done'" are not mere religious words.  They are compelling theology.  God's permissive will may be resisted to our undoing, but his determined will does not allow for any deviation.

In this passage Moses wanted the assurance that he was on God's side.  He wanted more of God because he had learned to walk in dependence upon God.  Moses was a careful and brilliant theologian.  He wanted the  face of God in his life in the first person singular.  He wanted to be God led.  He wanted the assurance of being God led.  Moses did not want a philosophy of God or a psychology of God he wanted a vital awareness of the face of God in his life.

Moses had overcome his (our) greatest obstacle to a vital spiritual life.  He had learned not to be self-centered.  He had learned to be God centered   Moses did not want God to fit himself into a pre-cast mould.  Moses had transcended the level of bending God into a psycho-religious entity.  Moses knew that the living God was powerful beyond imagination.  And now Moses has requested that God open a deeper experience with himself.  Moses life is fully satisfied.  His request of God is answered.

Moses has changed.  He is new.  God has become his King.  Moses is in active worship in the face of God. He could make no greater request than to see God.  All of the things that we substitute for God's face are gone.  All of the carnal desires we chase after in this life are gone.  Moses had found the fullness of joy in the face of God.  Moses is built up in his faith by this experience with God.

Does God need to do an Exodus event in your life?  Do you need to have an encounter with the face of God?  Let me tell you that God is real.  It is our unreality that wants to be convinced of the reality of God.  But we labor under an illusion that we can know God while begging him to convincingly reveal himself to us in our flesh understanding.  The flesh will not be convinced by evidence. The flesh is convinced only of its self-centered conclusions.  It is terrible self-molestation.

Moses has been set free.  He stands within the cleft of the rock and he experiences the Face of the Rock of Ages.  Moses is not ashamed of his faith.  He knows that without faith, it is impossible to please God.  God is pleased when we seek his face.

Are you ready to seek the Face of God?  Are you done with the substitutes that fight you and want to supplant the Face of God in your life?  Ask God to show you his glory.  The word 'glory' is kabod in Hebrew and means the weight of God.  This gets deeper and deeper as we go into the Scriptures.  Let God show his Face to you today.  Blessings to you.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow his blog and visit his website.